Thousands without power after storms hit Midwest

Posted: Sunday, May 23, 2004

Patrick CondonThe Associated Press

BRADGATE, Iowa - Houses lay crumpled to their foundations and hundreds of thousands of people were without power Saturday after storms tore through the Midwest, including a tornado that leveled this tiny Iowa town.

"Sixty seconds of horror and weeks and months of rehabilitation and rebuilding," said Gov. Tom Vilsack, who took a walking tour of Bradgate, population 100, in northwestern Iowa.

Fifteen people in Bradgate and nearby Rolfe were injured, though none seriously, in the Friday night tornado, said Humboldt County Emergency Management Director Doug Wood. The tornado rendered 30 of Bradgate's 40 homes uninhabitable, he said.

The Meier family's possessions - roller skates, dolls and Christmas stockings - lay in heaps on the basement floor amid shattered concrete foundation blocks. Marina Meier stood next to the wrecked home clutching a picture of her 5-year-old daughter.

"They found it on the other side of town," said Meier, her face sunburned and her clothes coated in dirt and sawdust. "It might be the only picture we have of her now."

Debris littered a small park Saturday, including a mattress, a kitchen sink and a toilet. A pair of men's overalls hung from a tree branch.

While Iowa was hardest hit, severe weather Friday and Saturday knocked out power through parts of West Virginia, Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Michigan authorities blamed three deaths on the storm - all due to trees falling on cars Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power after the storms, and many were not expected to get it back until today.

About 265,000 customers in Michigan were still without electricity Saturday evening; 73,000 in Ohio; 44,000 in West Virginia; and 5,000 in Pennsylvania.